Technical Committees

Standardization at TBS
Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) is the statutory national standards body for Tanzania, mandated to formulate, promulgate and implement national standards. The work of preparing national standards is solely done by TBS.

The Bureau has an established national standardization system through which national standards are formulated. This system is based on the worldwide ‘consensus principle’ which works through the use of technical committees. These committees draw members from all stakeholder groups including industries, government ministries and institutions, research institutions, institutions of higher learning, business organizations and consumers. So far TBS has been able to finalize more than 1,500 Tanzania standards.

The finalized standards include product standards, test methods, codes of practice and codes of hygiene. The standards cover various sectors of the economy including food and agriculture, chemicals, textiles and leather, engineering, environment and general techniques.

Whenever a standard covers a product that can affect health, safety, the environment or with significant impact to the national economy, such a standard is published as a compulsory standard. All other standards are voluntary.

Technical Committees
Currently, there are eight supervisory committees commonly known as Divisional (Standards) Committees. The supervisory committees comprise of about 12 members each. Members are drawn from a cross-section of stakeholders that include the government, academia & research, manufacturers, distributors and consumers.

Under each Divisional Committee there exists Technical Committees of up to eight members which are committees of experts from a cross-section of stakeholders. In some cases, the Technical Committee may form Working Groups of about 3-4 experts that prepare the preliminary drafts. The chairpersons of all the committees are normally drawn from neutral bodies like the universities, or from the government and especially the relevant ministry. Secretaries are drawn from TBS.